Friday, November 28, 1980

The barn door creaked as Elizabeth slowly opened it to peer inside of her father's workshop. She smiled upon seeing the four deactivated animatronics that he had been working on—a white and pink fox, a white and pink bear with a blue bunny puppet, a blue ballerina, and a clown girl with red hair and pigtails just like her!

Elizabeth then turned her gaze to her father, who was sitting at his workbench and assembling some metallic parts. He was so preoccupied with his work that he hadn't even noticed her.

The four-year-old girl entered the workshop and went up to the clown animatronic, looking up at it in wonderment.

It was then that William Afton realized that he wasn't alone. He put his tools down on the workbench before turning around to see who it was, and upon seeing his young daughter, he couldn't help but smile.

"Elizabeth, what are you doing here?" William asked as he got out of his chair.

"Daddy, I wanna play with her!" Elizabeth giggled as she gestured to the Circus Baby animatronic.

William gave her a rueful smile. "Sorry, honey, but she's not done yet."

"When is she done?" Elizabeth asked eagerly.

"Soon," William replied with a chuckle as he walked over to her. He gently took her hand and began to lead her out of the barn-turned-workshop. "Now come along. Daddy needs to be able to focus if he is to finish her."

Elizabeth beamed with excitement. "And then I get to play with her?"

"Of course," William replied with a tired smile. Once they had exited the building, he knelt down to her level and said, "Now, why don't you go play with Michael?"

"M'kay!" Elizabeth said with a smile before she ran off towards the house.

Suddenly, William heard the phone ring inside of his workshop. He went inside and picked it up.

"William Afton speaking."

"Hi, Will!" Henry said on the other end of the line.

"Oh, hi Henry," William replied as he sat down at his workbench. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You remember Isaac, Norm, and Glenn from college? They're working for me now, and we were thinking of grabbing some beers and reminiscing over at Ben's Place later today," Henry explained. "Do you want to come along?"

William grimaced as he thought it over. Finally, he replied, "Sure."

"Really? That's great!" Henry exclaimed. "Can you meet us there at… eight?"

"Yeah, eight's fine," William replied.

"Alright, see you later, Will!" Henry said before hanging up.

William let out a weary sigh as he hung up as well.

William had his doubts as to how enjoyable this get-together would actually be, and he seriously considered calling it off a couple of times. Nevertheless, he would take his car that night and drive it to Ben's Place. But even after parking, he ended up hesitating before he finally got out of his car.

Given that it was Friday night, the pub was full of people, and so William had to take a moment to look around in order to find who he was looking for. Finally, he spotted Henry sitting at a table together with some other guys. He was waving at him. William forced a smile and waved back. But before he joined the group, he went and got himself something to drink.

With a glass of beer in hand, William approached the table.

"Hi, Will! Glad you could make it," Henry said with a welcoming smile.

"Hey, Will!" Norm grinned and raised his glass.

"Hello, everyone," William greeted the four men as he took a seat. "Long time no see."

"How are you doing, Will?" Isaac asked before taking a sip from his glass.

"Oh, I'm doing fine," William replied. "You know me, always hard at work."

"I heard you have three kids now!" Glenn remarked with a warm smile.

"Yeah," William replied, this time with a much more genuine smile. "Michael, Elizabeth, and Evan. They're seven, four, and two years old respectively."

"Are you planning on having a fourth?" Glenn asked.

"Not at the moment, no," William replied with a chuckle. "Work is keeping me far too busy these days."

"So I'd imagine, what with you setting up your own animatronic restaurant all on your own," Norm said with a jovial laugh. "But if there's anyone who can do it, it's definitely you with that big brain of yours!"

"Speaking of which," Isaac interjected with a look of enthusiasm. "The robotic endoskeletons you and Henry devised are absolutely astounding!"

Looking quite proud of himself, William took a swig from his glass. "Well, we had to figure out some clever solutions for them to work with the springlock suits."

"Oh no, I'm not referring to the old endoskeletons. I'm referring to the new ones," Isaac corrected.

William blinked. "The… new ones…?"

"Precisely," Isaac nodded. "Their ability to walk on two legs is simply revolutionary, especially given that they can do so regardless of which animatronic suit they wear."

William's thoughts raced, and he furrowed his brow as he began to piece things together in his head. Once he finally realized what was going on, he gave Henry an accusatory look. "You stole my endo designs!?"

Isaac, Norm, and Glenn all went silent and turned to Henry, who simply shrugged and said, "I didn't steal anything. You showed me those designs on multiple occasions, remember? And with you leaving to go your own way, I simply decided to go off my memory and continue where you left off."

Norm stared at Henry in disbelief. "You memorized the entire design?!"

Henry smirked and pointed at his temple. "Photographic memory, remember? Really served me well back in college."

William ground his teeth. "So what? You let me do all of the hard work and then just added some additional details here and there?"

"Well, I'd like to think that I did a little more than that," Henry remarked.

William glared daggers at him. "Fuck you, Henry!"

"Hey now, don't be like that, Will," Henry replied. "Try to look at it from my perspective. You just decided to go off on your own one day and make a competing restaurant, taking all of those incredible technological innovations with you. If I hadn't borrowed from your designs to stay competitive, you'd eventually run me out of business."

"Borrowed?! Borrowed?!" William growled. "You stole my greatest achievement, you fucking parasite!"

William then threw his drink in Henry's face and stormed off, leaving the other three speechless.

Once he returned home, William made a beeline for the barn, where he proceeded to angrily dismantle his animatronics. If Henry was going to use the same endoskeletons as him, then he was just going to have to make better endoskeletons. William's expression grew more determined as he continued to dismantle the machines. He was going to show Henry! He was going to show everyone!